how are your lessons going? thread II

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IndyLady said:
@lucia_l - Ugh, I feel for you. Not that it excuses anything, but it's at least good to hear that you only had 1 private lesson left (as opposed to 10 or 20 or 50, lol) so you have the space to take a breather. It sounds like you did everything right in response to all this.

On a tangent, that is one of my pet peeves about this business (though it happened to me with my dentist years ago too).
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I agree! It's so odd, given that the custom is two week notice for most established businesses. But when I was at an independent, it was the same as the franchise i'm at now. Teachers came and went without a lot of notice. I have to say, it's nice that this time I had notice that my teacher was leaving.
 
IndyLady,

I am biased toward studios who don't lock people into too many lessons in one fell swoop. Long ago my husband and I had the "sudden departure" right after we'd renewed. We ... did... not... like this.
Honestly, the teacher we got changed to was better. And in that case, I sort of suspected the studio might have been in the right. (As I said: I have an imagination... and in that case, I imagined stuff and considered it plausible that I would not consider plausible in this instance.)

In that case, were I tended to think the studio might we right, my husband and I still didn't like it. It left a bad taste in our mouth. When time came to renew, we did not and I think the bad taste contributed to that.

But you know... that studio didn't proactively offer to cancel and refund our contract. I don't know what we would have done had they offerred. We'd probably have continued. But... I don't know. It definitely makes customers grumpy to sign up with one thing in mind and then something else happens.

Anyway, shortish contracts will be an element in my picking a studio, and I will tell anyone marketing a package that very long contracts are just non-starters.

Right now, the group lessons we have are a short enough deal that we'll use them up. If I cancel private lessons, with two using group lessons, we'll be done in less than a month. We tend to like the Friday lessons no matter what, and there is open dance after that. So we'd probably continue that. We'll probably continue some open dance anyway-- it's a weekly dance. So why not?

For the privates... well... I have my ear to the ground to hear reasons. But honestly, it's likely to be like the other studio. The 'sudden leaving' just makes me feel... weird.
 
scullystwin42,
If it's the owner cutting the teacher lose suddenly, one reason some owners might not want to allow notice is they don't want established clients to have time to think about decamping with the soon to be former teacher! Having the teacher be gone reduced the natural opportunities for student and teacher to talk. (And lets face it, it can be the student who initiates this conversation. The same happens with hair dressers!)

Also: the teacher not having a known landing place also makes it harder for a student to transfer to the teacher's new studio since that new studio doesn't exist!

By the same token: this motivation would tend to make teachers want to stay a few weeks while organizing their departure-- provided the departure was to some place close and they think they can steal a student away somehow subtly without ruining their reputation with other business owners. (Otherwise, the teachers motive to stay quite includes wanting students to continue lessons so the teachers slate if full until they leave.)

Appropriate non-compete clauses in contracts can minimize this risk that teachers will 'steal' clients. (I use that losely since sometimes the reason a client was with a studio was that teacher and not the studio. But generally, business wise, the students are sort of assumed to be contracting the studio.)


Still, some business owners might not have thought of non-competes. Or don't have contract in place for other reasons. Yada, yada....

Who knows...
 
I have seen a couple of sudden departures when the teacher just flaked out and disappeared for some reason. It can also happen that even when there is the intent of 2 week notice for all involved (including students), the initial conversation goes so poorly (abusive shouting for example) the it turns into an immediate departure.
 
Started my new solo/showcase routine last night, which was super fun! The timing is tricky in places, which is a nice challenge. Also worked on my rhythm routines and got a lovely compliment from my pro! Those are very rare :p . ready to continue to focus on rhythm for a while and also to get this showcase to be banging.

Still some studio drama, but peripheral to me. Pro's frustrated with how the franchise area he's in is doing things, and so little things will set him off. unlike some other people who complain or just leave, however, he's actually trying to do something to change it! I hope he can change things, because i've gone very far with him as my pro, but i am also glad i keep tabs on the other chicago area pros and studios...
 
I used the final lesson in my package yesterday. No student was in the session before or after me. After I did not renew my private lessons, the owners brought up the subject of my grumpiness. The owner's side of the story is he asked for a raise and they felt they couldn't give him one without raising prices.

For reference: The studio charge $65 for a 50 minute lesson. I'm not sure how much groups lessons are ($12?). Every other nearby studio charges at least 20% more.

Given what I know about customers, traffic and so on at the studio, when I heard this reason for letting the teacher go was "The studio owners decision was crazy. Just crazy."

That said: I'm not a business person. I don't own the place. It's their decision to make. Maybe keeping costs and having low ball prices will work. Or not. That's private enterprise.
 
lucia_l said:
I used the final lesson in my package yesterday. No student was in the session before or after me. After I did not renew my private lessons, the owners brought up the subject of my grumpiness. The owner's side of the story is he asked for a raise and they felt they couldn't give him one without raising prices.

For reference: The studio charge $65 for a 50 minute lesson. I'm not sure how much groups lessons are ($12?). Every other nearby studio charges at least 20% more.
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wow that is pretty cheap for a 50 min lesson! i know most places charge up to $20 to $75 more for only 40/45 min lessons.
 
Hmm...The reason given by the owner sounds very different than the reason given by the teacher. Sounds like there's more to the story than you may ever know. Sorry your are experiencing the drama, the unexpected exit of someone close is difficult.

Those do sound like very good prices.
 
Well Rounded,

Actually, I think I translated what teacher said. What he said was blindsided which I turned into "no idea". In a subsequent text, I asked if he had a no-compete in his contract. He said no, they were negotiating one, then it suddenly all broke down. So in the end, that's fairly consistent. I think it was money. Exactly who said what, when how, I don't know. But both may feel surprised by the outcome with neither thinking they planned it that way.

Honestly though, if it was money, the owners are crazy.
 
Wonderful coaching on friday. Really challenging. did cha cha and bolero. Bolero has been the subject of a lot of tweaks lately, so my pro wanted to do something else, but i liked how the coach worked my cha cha, so i decided to get him on bolero too. and it was worth it! will need coaching on mambo and swing again soon tho
 
We've been working on a new showcase routine recently. It is primarily tango with some rumba and WCS thrown in for variety. Making the transitions between the dances is interesting and challenging. This is only the second showcase routine that I've ever done. I guess I'm making progress as learning this routine is going much faster than last year's effort.
 
Great Cha Cha lesson today!

Some of you will recall I mentioned two weeks ago yesterday my teacher parted from what I will now call my "former studio". I've been enjoying competing pro-Am (even if I'm not so great). I wanted to continue competing. There were only two male pros there, I knew didn't want to train and compete with the other one who I will call "Owner of former studio". I figured I should check out the studio down the street from "former studio".

So one of the first things I did was phone the studio down the street and make an appointment. I had my first lesson at what I will now call "new studio" two weeks ago today. This was with a new teacher who had been hired-- coincidentally-- the very day I phoned! He. Is. Amazing. I will call him "New Guy", because I am now taking my competition lessons from him.

However, in the mean time, the teacher from "former studio" was trying to figure out how to go forward. He was looking into renting space, contacting studios and so on. A week ago two day, he had an appointment with the "Owner of new studio" to discuss possibilities. Obviously, I wasn't in the room for that discussion, but I saw her later, and she told me she'd seen my teacher, and was surprised the other studio parted with him. She wanted to see him participate at their weekend party, and if he fit she'd offer him a job. I was already planning to go to that party, so I was very thrilled he would be there.

Well... turns out he fit in. He is now hired at "new studio". So, I guess I'll now call him "Old Guy" (even though he's about 25 yo and I'm about 60 yo. :) Tomorrow I have a lesson with "Old Guy". My plan is: competition type dances with "New Guy" and "club dances" with "Old guy". This choice gives me the best of both worlds because both agree that two teachers is great and both seem to think the other is great.

I look forward to a great West Coast Swing lesson tomorrow!
 
lucia_l said:
Well... turns out he fit in. He is now hired at "new studio". So, I guess I'll now call him "Old Guy" (even though he's about 25 yo and I'm about 60 yo. :) Tomorrow I have a lesson with "Old Guy". My plan is: competition type dances with "New Guy" and "club dances" with "Old guy". This choice gives me the best of both worlds because both agree that two teachers is great and both seem to think the other is great.
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Glad it all worked out!
 
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